A New Twist
by periwinklegrl16
Summary: Nellie gets witch powers, but at the age of fourteen, way after all the other normal witches and wizards. Because she's an oddity of her kind, schools in the U.S. won't accept her so late so she joins Hogwarts and befriends Harry, Hermione, and Ron...
1. Chapter 1

**READ THIS EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ CHAPTER ONE!**

**I have updated Chapter 1 five times now and believe it to be significantly better. Even if you have already read it, I hope you will read it and be very proud of me for making it so good. Just kidding. It's kind of bad, sorry. Tell me if I put too many details, please.**

_***Disclaimer: I do not own or come up with any of the content (Characters, plot, or anything at all from the Harry Potter series) that appears in this story. J.K. Rowling came up with it all… I am not that brilliant.**_

**A/N: This is my first FanFiction story so if you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas for me please review. You are allowed to say whatever you want if you think it will help me, just as long as its not really mean! Thanks!**

_Chapter 1: The Tree_

_I_ _really need to learn fluent Spanish_, I thought to myself. The washer girl was babbling rapidly to me about something… "Sí, sí, yo… er…. Quieres todo él, uh,….emm… ropa para la casa. Si" I said hopefully. The washer girl luckily understood and dropped the huge pile of clean clothes into my outstretched arms.

I huffed up to my grandmother's house and yelled while marching up the stairs, "LAUNDRY! I WENT AND GOT THE CLEAN LAUNDRY!" I heard a muffled "Thanks!" from the top of the stairs. When I reached the landing, Marley, my little sister, scurried over to help me. "Just dump it on that chair, Nellie" Marley instructed.

After I did as she had told, Marley fished through the pile of laundry, picking out her clothes. I looked over at Sarah, Marley's twin sister. Her eyes were glued to the computer screen, and she was squinting in concentration. "Dang it!" She whispered.

"Sarah?" I called, amused. She was practically addicted to some online game called "Yoda Sushi Cutter" or something like that.

"SHH!" She said angrily, not taking her eyes from the screen. "I'll get her clothes, too" Marley said as she rolled her eyes.

"C'mon Sarah" I walked over to her. "We're leaving tomorrow! You need to get packed!" She looked up at me. "I'm already packed," she told me, annoyed that I had interrupted her holy game. "Plus, I'm already on level 23! I only have to beat the Mooshoo and then I just…" Sarah trailed off, looking back at her game.

"Fine. If you leave anything in Costa Rica, don't say I didn't warn you." I sighed. If my mom was still here, she would have been able to get Sarah to listen. But my mom had had to leave a week early for work.

"I need to go back, honey. My job doesn't allow me unlimited vacation" she had told me when I had asked her why she couldn't stay. I missed her, but I was glad that we had been able to stay so long in Costa Rica. Vacations were not to be taken for granted, as we hardly ever did anything with our father.

An angry noise escaped from my throat at the thought of my father, scaring a small lizard in the corner of the room. My good old' Dad wasn't exactly the "parent of every child's dreams". He and our mom had divorced four years ago, because my dad had cheated on her. He then married a young woman and seemed to like to pretend that his children didn't really exist.

That's why we were all so reluctant to leave this peaceful paradise. We had surfed in the Caribbean, took trips in the jungle, jumped into a waterfalls… We felt lucky about spending so much time in Costa Rica, for when we were to go back to the U.S., we had to visit with our dad for two weeks. None of us were looking forward to that.

"Nellie, what are you doing?" I looked up from my musings and realized I had been sitting on the floor and flicking a pebble. I stood up quickly and felt a little nauseous. Looking down at the huge pile of clothes to pack made me feel even worse. I groaned, causing Marley to look at me. I shook my head and told her "I feel weird. Gonna go take a walk." Marley nodded and went back to her packing.

I stepped out of my room into the windowless living room, where Sarah was still staring at the computer screen and clicking away. Turning away from her, I stepped down the stairs into the front garden, seeing a very large spider spinning a web. It was amazing, the labyrinth of silk the spider made so fast. _The labyrinth!_ I remembered my grandmother telling me about a labyrinth of short hedges somewhere down one of the paths in the backyard.

I leisurely walked to the back of the house, enjoying the sounds of the monkeys and birds in the jungle. There were two paths in her yard. Not knowing which led to the labyrinth, I took the one on the right.

The path was longer than I had expected, and although I thought many times of turning back and trying the other one I felt that it was faster just to go to the end and see where this one led. Plus, I really did not want to get back to the stuffy bedroom and keep packing.

I continued down the path for what felt like forever, but then reached a clearing. It was a small circular area in the middle of the forest, empty except for a tall, large tree. I looked around and saw where the path continued, and my muscles ached at the thought of walking longer. _The labyrinth can't be out this far…_ I thought uneasily, realizing that I had carried myself quite far into the jungle. Resolving to rest and then walk back before darkness, I saw that there was a little niche in the wood of the tree for me to sit in. I checked for ants and then settled comfortably on the cushy ground. My head was spinning a bit and my legs were tingling from walking so long.

I looked around at the clearing and shivered. Something was a little odd about it. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was different than the rest of the jungle. _Maybe it's just my tired brain imagining things_, I thought uneasily. Suddenly, the afternoon sun was covered up by a cloud and the little light that had been shining through the trees of the jungle lessened.

The clearing's temperature had dropped quickly with the disappearance of the sun. I shivered as a chill went up my spine. _Chills? In Costa Rica?_ _Am I sick?_ Something must be wrong with me. I was probably just tired, so I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined myself next to a warm, cozy fire.

I had dozed off, but opened my eyes a little to see an extremely bright clearing. Squeezing my eyes shut again to wait until I got adjusted a little to the light, I thought that the sun must have come back out. Opening my eyes again, I realized that the brightness was not caused by the sun.

I shrieked and jumped up and away from the burning tree. "I could've burned myself!" I exclaimed, as if the tree could hear and be ashamed of itself. Backing away, I examined my skin for burns, expecting to see blackened skin on my arms, which had been touching the tree. Although I had been sitting in the fire for at least five minutes, I had not one burn. I looked at the tree, curious and confused. How had it caught on fire, anyway?

I rechecked myself, my clothes, my hands, arms, legs, hands again. I thought I saw a flicker of something, but it must have been my imagination… Still, I watched my hands for a few more seconds. So quickly that I could've imagined it, my fingertips sparked.

Bewildered and disbelieving, I watched my fingertips for longer. Every few seconds they'd let of a little spark of electricity at random, every time causing me to jump. I whimpered and didn't know how to react. "Please, please, just stop!" I whispered, scared. Very abruptly, the tree ceased its burning and my fingers stopped sparking. I blinked, surprised. What was happening was just… not possible. I looked around to make sure no one was there. Afraid for my sanity, I quickly located the path I came from and ran all the way back to the house.

Finally arriving at the house, and running as though I was being pursued, I sprinted up the stairs and sat down across from Sarah who was still immersed in her game and didn't even look up while I was sat there, still panting.

"Nellie?" I heard Marley call from the other room. "Yeah?" I squeaked. For some reason I felt guilty, as if I had done something wrong. Marley came of out her room. "I finished packing! Did you have a good walk?" she said happily. "Mmhmm..." I said quickly and then added "But I'm going to go to bed now… I'm really tired…" I stood up and pretended to yawn, when in reality, my heart was still racing. Now, being so far away from it, the burning tree seemed less real.

Marley looked surprised and skeptical. "Umm… It's only 7:30, Nellie. Normal fourteen-year-olds don't go to bed or even get tired, at _7:30_." She smirked. _Uh-oh,_ I thought, _Little miss I'm-cooler-than-you-even-though-I'm-younger wants to make fun of her "dorky" sister._

"Marley, I just don't feel well, okay? Goodnight." I said, annoyed, and hurried into my bedroom. I shut the door quickly, but not before I saw Marley's little smirk and heard her say softly, mockingly; "What's the hurry, Nell, past your bedtime?"

I grunted angrily and turned around. Prissy, my grandmother's cat, was lying on my bed. "Why is she such a brat?" I asked Prissy while petting her on her head. Prissy closed her eyes and said "Mowww".

I sighed and put on my P.J's, got into bed, and tucked the mosquito net under my mattress. My thoughts drifted back to the burning tree._ Did that even happen? HOW did it happen… I'm not crazy_,I told myself uncertainly, _it was just a daydream, a figment of my imagination…Wasn't it? Tomorrow I'll forget all about it. _I drifted off to sleep, only to have some very strange dreams.

**A/N: I'm sorry if this is a boring chapter for you, I just needed to explain everything and start the story. Yes it will get better. Yes it will start having more to do with Harry Potter. (I implore you to pay attention to the fact that Nellie was ON FIRE, so technically, she did magic. It does relate to Harry Potter somewhat.)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: A Fine Time to Dine

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters and plot that will eventually appear in this story. It will get there, people.**

"Nellie, pass the potatoes!" Marley snapped at me angrily. We were at home dinner back together as a family. Apparently, Marley had been asking me for the potatoes over and over, but I was too busy thinking about an incident that had happened about a day ago. So, when she yelled at me, I looked at her, startled, and then quickly shoved the burning hot bowl of mashed potatoes into her arms. As she was waiting to receive the bowl, she was snootily telling me off. "You should really stop _day dreaming_, Nellie, that's really – OW!"

Uh-oh. I had accidently shoved a little too hard, and the mashed potatoes had left the bowl and were all over Marley. I tried to hide my smirk as I dashed off to the kitchen to get some paper towels.

My mom looked at me and shook her head, frowning. I gave her an innocent expression that I hoped said 'What? ME? What did I do?'

"Nellie, that was really unnecessary-" "I didn't do it on purpose, Mom! It was a total accident!" _Well, almost a total accident_, I thought smugly.

My mom rolled her eyes and started rubbing the mashed potatoes off of Marley. I tried to help but Marley yelled at me, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

My mom, trying to tone down the situation said, "Now, Marley, she didn't do it on purpose-" "OF COURSE SHE DID IT ON PURPOSE!" I shook my head and said "No, Marley, really, it was an accident, I swear, I'm really sorry—""UGH, YOU'RE JUST A GEEK AND A DORK AND A DAY-DREAMING-FREAK, NELLIE!" And with that she stomped upstairs.

I looked at my mom. She had one of those "don't-talk-to-me-right-now" looks on her face as she stood up to go after Marley. I sighed and said "I'll get the dishes." My mom nodded and marched up the stairs. I looked over at Sarah, who was still sitting at the table. She was covering her mouth and giggling as if this was some big, funny TV show. She looked over at me with a smile. "Does this mean I don't have to eat my broccoli?"

I rolled my eyes and collected all the plates, then took them into the kitchen. As I was scrubbing the pasta pan, I started to think about the tree again. I still had not decided whether it was real or not. I certainly could not tell anyone, they'd think I was crazy or had a nightmare. I went through all the different conclusions in my head, as I had done for the past 24 hours. A soft tap at the kitchen window interrupted my thoughts. I looked up and jumped back, loudly dropping the pan that I had been washing.

There was an owl at the window. _An owl._ And it also seemed to have something attached to its leg. It was so odd. Again, I didn't know what to do. It must be sick or hurt to be coming so close to humans. Perhaps it was a lost pet? I noticed something was tied to its leg… I couldn't just leave it there… There seemed only one thing to do, and the animal lover in me overrode my common sense."You poor thing" I cooed softly. I glanced around and then slowly, carefully, opened the window.

The owl hopped in. It was a beautiful brown color, with orange-ish eyes. It hooted at me as if to say 'Thank you!'.

"Shh!" I told the owl, panic stricken. "If my mom sees you... we'll both be injured." I whispered to the owl. It seemed to hoot a little more quietly this time and tuck out its foot.

I reasoned that this was what was bothering the owl. At second glance I realized that there was a letter attached to the owl's foot! "Someone was using you as a mailman?" I whispered angrily. I figured that one of the boys in my neighborhood had caught the injured owl and had tried to use it to send a letter to one of his buddies. There had been reports of that before with an injured dove. _But why, and how, did they use an owl?_ I thought uneasily. Another strange event within four days… But the poor owl! As long as the owl was already in my kitchen, I thought, I might as well remove the heavy letter from its leg.

I untied the string that was holding the letter to the owl. As soon as I took it off, the owl hooted once more and flew out the open window. "Well, I guess I fixed the problem!" I muttered to myself, confused and unsatisfied with the odd situation.

Looking down at the letter in my hands, the anger that I felt before rushed back into my head. "People can't just use animals to wait on them! Ugh! Let's see what idiot this is for!" I turned over the oddly heavy letter in my hands and gasped. The envelope was addressed to…me?

Nellie Samantha Jennings

6521 Riding Road

Farnsworth, North Carolina, USA

The Kitchen

I looked around, paranoid. Who knew I was in the kitchen, and who sent me a letter by _owl_?

"You must be crazy." I said to myself, half worried and half curious, before tearing open the letter.

_**Dear Ms. Jennings,**_

_**We have recently learned that you have performed magic at 7:03 PM Eastern time while in a different country (The Republic of Costa Rica). Due to your absence at your home, we have not been able to contact you promptly.**_

_**For a normal witch your age, you would be expelled from whichever magical academy you were attending for using magic outside of school. But, since there was no evidence that you were a witch until yesterday, we have decided to let this breakage of law go on without punishment. **_

_**At this time we would be telling you what school you shall be attending and where in the United Sates it is. However, in your unusual case, none of the Magical schools in America will accept you; seeing as you are, well, quite unusual.**_

_**Luckily, the well-known Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, has heard of your case and has decided to accept you at his school, Hogwarts, near London, and free of charge. A Ministry wizard is being sent to your home to collect you and your belongings as soon as possible to escort you to Europe. **_

_**Warm Regards and good luck,**_

_**Annie Smith**_

_**Director of the Underage Magic Office at the Eastern Sector of the U.S. Ministry of Magic **_

I blinked. And then read it again. And again. This was too far; someone must be messing with my head. _A witch…? _Was this a prank? Who would do this? Maybe it's some wacko… I froze. I had heard of these stories, crazy men, laying intricate traps to kidnap and rape young teens. _A ministry wizard is being sent to your home to collect you…_"Someone is going to try to come and kidnap me" I whispered to myself in realization.

"Mom?" I called up the stairs weakly. "Mom? MOM!" I screamed, losing my composure. "WHAT?" She yelled back. "Come down here, QUICK!" Hearing the frantic tone in my voice, she bolted down the stairs and into the kitchen.

Her eyes found the open window, not understanding. "What? What is it? Are you okay? What happened?" I shoved the letter into her hands. She quickly scanned it, her brows furrowing more and more as she read it twice.

She looked up at me, who looked thoroughly confused and suspicious. "What is this?" She demanded. "Are you pulling some kind of prank on me? Where did you get this?"

I pointed at the window and said "An-owl-was-tapping-at-the-window-so-I-let-it-in- because-I-thought-it-was-hurt-and-it-gave-me-this-letter-and-left-and-then-I-opened-this-and-it-says-that-someone-is-coming-to-take-me-to-London-and-I-think-it's-someone-trying-to-kidnap-me!" I finished, out of breath and on the verge of tears.

My mother's face paled, but I could see her mind kicking into action. "Shh, it'll be okay, calm down. So on the envelope; these people knew your name? Yes, okay, so we need to get out of the house quickly and call the police before the kidnappers get here… What time is it? Oh. Okay it's nine-o'clock; okay I think we have some time, when did you get this letter, ten minutes ago? Okay. Go get—"

But she didn't have time to finish because someone knocked on the door. I looked at my mom and saw the remaining color drain from her face. She swallowed. "Could be the neighbors?" I squeaked. She shushed me and quietly tip-toed to the door and checked through the peep hole.

My mom looked out the peep hole for a long time. Then she turned around looked at me, quizzically, and turned back to look in the peep hole again. To my great surprise, she then pulled open the door and said "Angela?"

**A/N: Okay, so I know I promised that it would be all Harry-Potter-ish and stuff, but seriously, I had fun making this chapter. So much suspense… yes? No? Fine. No one ever agrees with me WHATEVER. But still. Now that "Angela" is here things will get very interesting. As this is my first draft of this story it may be stinky because I haven't edited it and I am publishing it so… don't criticize. Well, anyway, it will get fun from hear I SWEAR. Ok? Keep reading, please!**

**PS: Sorry for the delay BTW... maybe it was because I didn't get enough reviews.. I'm just saying. The more reviews I get, the faster I update! Adios!**

**XOXO, Bianca**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: You know, the only thing so far that I don't know is Ablus Dumbledore. And Hogwarts. And maybe even the whole "Ministry of Magic" businees. But STILL, I don't own it. My BFF J.K. Rowling does. :P**

**A/N: Just hope you like! The chapters get better the more you review!**

**BTW, sorry so short. It looks a lot longer on Microsoft word. **

**Chapter 3: Let's Explain…**

Part One:

I started in alarm at the sound of my name. Was I dreaming?

The lady came over and grasped my hand firmly, looking me up and down.

I did the same. The lady was wearing an odd assortment of robes, very weird but also kind of official-looking. She had a very friendly smile that reached all the way to her crinkly eyes.

The lady was babbling on and on about something in a somewhat childish sounding voice, "…and I suppose your mother hasn't really talked about me, seeing as we weren't that great of friends in elementairy, oh whoops! I mean elementary school and she must have thought I was a bit weird seeing as, well, you know I had one magical parent and one muggle one. Being a witch I could understand how—" but I cut her off.

"A witch?" I said in disbelief. "Is this even real? I am dreaming. Although in my dreams I never usually have to think about whether I'm dreaming or not, it's mostly just there's a dream world and a real world…" I had confused myself and looked up at "Angela" for clarification, but she was just beaming at me once more. "Such a perceptive child! My, you will fit in just perfectly in our world, even though you will have difficulty adjusting at first, everyone does, that's why they sent me. I'm a half muggle, you see." She said, as though that would clear everything up for me.

"I…. well, can you… what?" I stuttered, still not knowing how to react. I looked over Angela's shoulder at my mom, who looked a little faint. "Mommy?" I said uneasily. She frowned and took a step forward.

"In second grade. We had a pet fish in our classroom. I was feeding him and he flopped out of the bowl onto the counter. I didn't want the teacher to get angry so I tried to catch it quickly, but the window was right next to it, and right as it was going to flop out of the window, the… the fish changed direction mid-air, straight into your hand." My mom finished, for some reason seeming to regain confidence. Angela looked amazed as she listened to my mother's recollection.

My mom continued, "And then I looked at you and you said 'A funny thing, wind. Sometimes, wind can be very helpful. If you use it right.' And then you giggled and put the fish back into the tank." Angela looked close to giggling right now, too. My mom looked at me and said "There was something funny about the situation, too weird for comprehension. Honey, I believe Angela. I think you're a," she looked at Angela while she said "witch."

I looked back and forth between Angela and my mom, half expecting someone to shout "JUST KIDDING! GOT YA!" But no one did. Then, out of all the reactions I could have picked, I hiccupped. And a blue butterfly flew out of my mouth.

…

15 minutes later, my entire family was sitting at the table with Angela, watching her eat a quart of Rocky Road Ice Cream and listening to her tell us all about the hidden wizarding world. My mom, for some reason, was calm and collected. The only thing she seemed to have a problem with though, was, "Yes, yes, I understand. The spells and wands and how the real wizards are not human wizard stereotypes. But how long did you say Nellie was going to be away at school? Christmas is _two_ weeks? Well, can I have her for three, just this year? And how long is she off in the summer? I just can't believe I'm loosing my baby this soon!" She looked at me as if I was five years old, embarrassing me.

"Mommy, I'll be home every summer. Plus just imagine the satisfaction you'll get when you tell dad? I don't know how happy he'll be." When I said this, my mom got this dreamy looked on her face and from then on seemed not to mind whatever plans Angela had for me.

Angela told us that the U.S.M.O.M (United States Ministry of Magic) could not find any wizarding schools in the U.S. that would accept me, because of my extraordinary case. "Getting your powers this late has definitely never happened in the wizarding world" Angela said uneasily, putting down her ice cream. "But luckily, there is a very nice headmaster, known for his magic and non-discrimination policy, Albus Dumbledore. He has accepted you for only half the tuition price, which is really nice in my opinion!" Angela added brightly.

My mom peeked up at this comment; we don't have a large amount of money, ourselves. "And how much is the tuition price?" my mom said suspiciously. Angela waved her 'wand' and a stack of yellowish papers appeared. "Here are some papers for you to fill out. My mom reached for a pen, but Angela suddenly said "Oh! Yes, so sorry, forgot." And then a bottle of ink and a feather appeared.

My mom peered at Angela, shook her head, and then seized the feather and start on the large stack of papers. Angela, in the meantime, kept explaining. "I work at the U.S.M.O.M, in the Educational and Residential offices. So as soon as I heard of your case, I volunteered to be the one to fill you in. So, we need to get moving as soon as possible because school starts in two days and we have to get to London by the long distance floo network, which is—" My mom had suddenly looked up and made a strangled noise. Angela and I both patted her shoulders on each side. She sighed unhappily and looked back down at her paperwork.

I, on the contrary to my mother, was getting more excited by the minute. London? Magic? Four years, no parents? Sounds like a dream come true. That was the only thing I was worried about, though. What if I woke up tomorrow morning, we went school shopping, and I would get boring old notebooks, and pens and pencils? That's why at every moment, I drank up Angela's words with a thirst that wasn't sure if it was actually getting quenched.

"And then a worker from the ministry of magic in London will take you to get your school supplies, which, luckily, will all be paid for by the U.S.M.O.M." finished Angela, finally, waving her wand. A clunking sound came from the kitchen. I turned around, and a glass of water was floating towards her.

I grinned and hiccupped again, looking up at the group of blue butterflies fluttering around our dining room. Angela had told us there were quite a few "side effects" to getting witch powers late… I was dying to find out what they were, besides hiccupping out butterflies. _Oh, yes; this is going to be awesome_, I thought to myself. If I had to choose, I'd pick feathers over pens any day.

I walked up stairs, lugging the trunk Angela had given me, and started packing for my journey.

…

Part Two:

Not ready yet! Sorry! Under construction!


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